


lost and found

by sunkissedstar



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Brotherly Love, Brothers, Canon Era, First Meetings, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, not to be dramatic, they're cute and i would die for them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:02:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24889567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkissedstar/pseuds/sunkissedstar
Summary: “Well, what’re you doin’ out here if you ain’t buyin’ my papes?” Albert said, grinning at his own joke. The kid laughed. He had a gap between his teeth and a cheeky smile that lit up his whole face, including his eyes.“My family says I gotta find work.”~Elmer and Albert meeting for the first time.
Relationships: Albert DaSilva & Elmer (Newsies)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	lost and found

**Author's Note:**

> remember the lost and found in middle school? that but with two little boys with a single braincell between them
> 
> anyway albert's like 10 and elmer's 7, they're literally the definition of babey and i love them
> 
> no tw except swearing i think, alright cool love u all enjoy

Not to be dramatic, but Albert was only ten and he was pretty sure he was already winning at life.

“Excuse me, ma’am, you wanna buy a pape?” he said innocently, jumping up to grip the pole of a lamppost and meeting the eyes of a young woman walking down the street. She pressed a hand to her heart.

“How old are you?” she asked. Albert coughed into his elbow.

“I’m seven,” he lied. “I don’t have anyone takin’ care of me out here, so if you’ve got any spare change so I can get somethin’ to eat…”  
  
The woman fished around in her purse without another word. She pressed a dime into Albert’s outstretched hand and wiped some dirt off his face, which he’d definitely smeared there on purpose.

“God bless you, baby,” she said, taking the paper Albert offered her. She hurried off around the corner as Albert watched her go, grinning madly.

“I’m a damn genius,” he muttered to himself, turning the dime over in his hand. He _knew_ it was a good move to slip away from the older newsies. Technically, he was too young to sell by himself, but he’d already sold twenty papers and it wasn’t even noon.

Like he said. Ten years old and killing the game.

Hopping off the lampost, he searched the streets for his next target. His eyes landed on a little boy wandering down the sidewalk. The kid was kicking a pebble, head down. Worth a try for a sell.

“Hey, kid!” Albert shouted, sprinting across the street and nearly getting run over by a carriage in the process. The kid’s head snapped up as Albert skidded to a stop in front of him and held a paper up, panting. 

“Got any spare change?” he said. “You’ll wanna get a load of this news.”

“Sorry,” the kid said. “I don’t got any money. I can’t read, either.”

Albert wanted to hit himself. _‘Course he doesn’t have money, idiot._ Maybe he really wasn’t cut out for this whole “selling alone” thing. Ignoring the heat in his cheeks, Albert took a good look at the kid.

He was tiny, maybe six or seven years old at the most. He was wearing a vest and a thin blue shirt. A cheap plaid bow tie was hanging loosely around his neck. His hair was jet black and his brown eyes were squinting up at Albert, hand shielding his freckled face from the sun.

“Well, what’re you doin’ out here if you ain’t buyin’ my papes?” Albert said, grinning at his own joke. The kid laughed. He had a gap between his teeth and a cheeky smile that lit up his whole face, including his eyes. 

“My family says I gotta find work.”

Albert cocked his head to the side. It was a habit he’d picked up from Race. “Aren’t you, like, five? What’re your folks doin’ that can’t feed a little kid?”

“I’m seven!” the kid said indignantly, crossing his arms. “And I’ve got eight big siblings. My sister has a baby now, and she can’t work. So I’ve got to. Plus, you’re little and you’re out here too.”

 _Fair enough._ “Well, I’m ten, so I win,” Albert said. “Where’re you headed? The papes are that way,” he pointed in the opposite direction, “I ain’t sure the gates are still open, though.”

“No, I’m goin’ to one of the big factories.”

 _Oh._ Albert’s face fell. He’d heard of the work that kids did in factories, especially little ones that could fit in small spaces. When Albert started looking for work a year ago, his dad had suggested the spinning mill across the city. His older brother had shot it down immediately. When there was a story in the paper a few days later about a boy losing his arm from getting it crushed in a machine, Albert understood why. 

The kid’s smile was so bright. Albert didn’t want to see it go to waste on twelve-hour work days and unpredictable, dangerous machinery. Being a newsie wasn’t a grand life, but Albert would rather have the kid selling papers with a dozen people to look out for him than have him stuck inside, crying and coughing up dust all day. He’d heard of kids that lost their hearing or died from diseases in factories, slaughterhouses, and sweatshops.

He wanted to help at least one.

“What’s your name?”

“Elmer Kasprzak,” the kid said proudly, adjusting his bow tie. “At your service.”

Albert spat in his hand and stuck it out. Elmer took it without a second of hesitation. “Albert. No last name needed.”

“Nice to meet you,” Elmer said. He glanced at the sun, which was rising higher in the sky with each passing minute, pinks melting into blues and shrouding the New York sky in the glow of the sunrise turning into day. “I’ve gotta be on my way, but maybe I’ll run into you on the way home?”

Albert didn’t have the heart to tell him the factories usually kept kids until midnight. Instead, he nudged Elmer’s chin to get a good look at his face.

“Nah, c’mon, you don’t need to make the hike over there,” he said. “You’re pretty cute. That mug would be better sellin’ papes out here, gettin’ some ladies cryin’ over you.”

The kid frowned. “Uh, thanks?”

Alber shrugged, trying to be nonchalant about his decision to save the kid from getting his name in a headline. “All I’m sayin’ is, if you want to sell papes out here instead of wastin’ time in a factory, I could bring you over to the boarding house when I’m done sellin’. Just to meet the other Manhattan kids.”

“Oh.” The kid looked at his shoes, old and crusted with mud. Albert had two older brothers; he knew a pair of hand-me-downs when he saw them. “My brother said I can’t sell papers ‘cause I can’t read.”

“That ain’t a big deal.” Okay, maybe it made selling the headline a little harder, but that sounded like a problem for tomorrow. “I bet my friend Race can teach you. I ain’t too good at teachin’, or else I’d do it.”

“My sister already tried. The letters move around too much, and…” Elmer trailed off, getting quieter, and he tugged on his collar nervously. “Nevermind. You won’t want to sell with me. I can find work, I promise, I’ll just…”

Albert rolled his eyes and grabbed the back of Elmer’s vest when he turned away. Resolutely ignoring the kid’s protests, Albert marched down the street in the opposite direction of the spinning mill.

“Yeah, _okay,”_ he said sarcastically. “My friend Race is the most obnoxious kid on the planet and we ain’t kicked him out yet. You’re gonna do great.”

Sure enough, Albert dragged Elmer around with him all day and brought him to the lodging house at the end of the day, paper bag empty and pockets full of jingling change. It took three, maybe four minutes for the older newsies to fall in love with Elmer. Two girls placed a bet on how many papers his “cute fuckin’ face” could sell in a week (“No swearin’ in front of the fuckin’ new kid! Wait, shit.”) and Bear, their leader, picked him up and put him on his shoulders, running around the room as Elmer screamed with joy.

Seeing Elmer smile for the first time since morning was a welcome relief. Albert sat quietly and watched from the couch with an older newsie named Clove, tucked under her arm as she raked a hand through his bright red hair.

When dusk was finally settling over the city, the sun lowering behind the tall buildings and painting the sky in pinks and oranges, someone started banging on the lodging house door.

Albert had been dozing in Clove’s lap, struggling to keep his eyes open; she shook him awake and nudged him off the couch.

“Go get the door, kid,” she said, rubbing her eyes. Albert scowled as he adjusted his hat back into place.

“I got it last time.”

“Yeah, but you were sittin’ on me and my legs were fallin’ asleep.”

Albert rolled his eyes, then ran over to the heavy wooden door in the main entrance to the lodge and pushed it open. He met the eyes of a tall man standing in the threshold; his dark eyes were searching for something over Albert’s head.

“Um, hi,” Albert said, taking a step back and gripping the doorway. He didn’t have a great reputation with strangers like the one towering over him.

“Hey, kid… is this the newsies’ lodge?”

Albert glanced at the sign above their heads. _Lower Manhattan Newsboys Boarding House._ “No, it’s Joseph Pulitzer’s mansion.”

The man grinned and lowered himself to Albert’s level. Now that he was up close, Albert could see a kindness in his eyes, one that had definitely worked with children before and knew exactly what he was doing. Some of the tension dropped from Albert’s shoulders as he rubbed the hem of his shirt.

“Well, Mister Pulitzer,” the man said, taking Albert’s small, thin hand in his calloused one. “Is there an adult around here that I can speak to?”

Before Albert could reply, an arm draped around his shoulders; it was Bear, his leader. Not exactly an adult at the ripe old age of seventeen, but it was better than trying to talk to a paranoid ten-year-old.

“What can I do for you, mister?” Bear said pleasantly, pulling Albert into his chest and holding his shoulders tightly. Albert squirmed under his hands, keeping his eyes trained on Bear’s shoes.

“Are you the one that runs the boarding house?” the man asked, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth. “I’m looking for my brother and I need to check the list where the children sign in for the night.”

Bear’s nails dug into Albert’s sleeves, leaving crescent-shaped marks in the rough fabric. Albert wasn’t sure if he was trying to protect him from the man or sending him a warning to hold his tongue, but either way, he kept his mouth shut.

“I’m as close as you’re gonna get to an adult around here,” Bear said nonchalantly. “Kloppman went to bed hours ago and I’m the leader of these idiots, so I’m your best bet.”

The man smiled tightly, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He reached out to shake Bear’s hand and accepted the silent invitation to come in when Bear took it. 

“Thank you,” he said, stepping inside and absentmindedly ruffling Albert’s hair. “My name is Edward. My parents and I sent my youngest brother out to find work this morning and he never came home.” He glanced at the setting sun outside the dirty, stained window by the front door. “It’s almost dark out and I figured I should check if he ended up here; he gets lost easily and I hoped someone had picked him up off the streets?”

It was a lot of formalities that Albert lost interest in pretty quickly. It wasn’t uncommon that a parent or an older sibling showed up looking for a stray, and his eyes drifted back to the floor, examining the hole in the worn-out toe of his boot.

“What’s your brother’s name?” Bear asked, looking almost as bored as Albert.

“El…”  
  
“Eddie!”

Albert’s head whipped up in time to see a small blur flying straight into Edward’s arms. Elmer threw his arms around his brother’s neck and wrapped his legs around his waist like a koala.

Edward’s face dropped in relief, hitting Elmer on the back of the head and putting a hand on his chest. “ _Gdzie byłeś,_ _mój drogi?”_

Elmer shrugged. _“Zgubiłem się.”_

Edward rolled his eyes and shifted Elmer to his hip. “Thank you,” he said to Bear. “I’ll bring him home and talk to him about wandering off again.”  
  
Albert opened his mouth, but Bear pinched him under the arm to keep him quiet.

Elmer said a quick goodbye before he was lugged out the door, and as soon as he was gone, Bear made a sharp turn back towards the common room. Albert followed at his heels.

“What if his family wants him to work in the factories instead of sellin’ papes?” he asked, grumpily rubbing the sore skin under his arm. “He had a cute mug. He’d be good for the older kids to sell with.”  
  
Bear shrugged and flopped down on the couch, pulling his hat over his eyes.

“I don’t know what to tell you, kid,” he said. “Elmer’s what, seven? If his parents or his brother want him in the factory, that’s where he’s goin’. Just the way life works.”

Albert frowned. “But…”  
  
“Sorry, Albert.” Bear blindly reached out and gave him a light shove towards the stairs. “Go find Clove and get to bed. You’ve had a long day and I don’t wanna be hearin’ you whine all the way to the gates tomorrow.”

* * *

“Al! Hey, Albie!”  
  
Albert turned at the familiar voice, squinting at the bright sunlight shielding his eyes from the street. A small body was running at him full-speed, and Albert barely had time to recognize the dark hair and plaid shirt as Elmer before he had a seven-year-old latching onto him like a bug.

“Hey, Elmo,” Albert said, setting him back on the ground and stumbling back. He wasn’t a fan of hugs, but Elmer had no such qualms, a huge grin on his face. His nose, dusted with sun-kissed freckles, was scrunched up like a kitten. “Um, what’s goin’ on?”  
  
Elmer bounced on his toes, fiddling with the cheap bow-tie around his neck. It had only been a couple days since Albert had found him wandering the streets; after his brother had shown up at the lodging house and scooped Elmer up to take him home, that was the last Albert had seen of either of them.

“I talked to my brother,” Elmer said. “Y’know, the one that showed up at the lodge? The tall one wit’ the mole next to his nose, my sister has the same one but I…”  
  
“Yeah, I remember,” Albert interrupted. “What about him?”  
  
“Oh, I talked to him about sellin’ with you,” Elmer said. He was smiling so wide his face could get stuck like that. “My sister was there and she said it was a way better idea than workin’ in the factories, and I told them what you said about other kids not knowin’ how to read and still sellin’ papers every days, and…”  
  
“What’s your point?”  
  
“He said I can sell with you,” Elmer said. “I can’t sleep at the lodging house all the time ‘cause my parents still want me livin’ where they can keep an eye on me, but I can meet up with you guys and walk over to buy papes every day! Ain’t that great, Albie?”  
  
Albert almost wanted to say _“Don’t call me Albie,”_ because only Race called him that and even that was a stretch, but Elmer looked so happy that he didn’t bring it up. Selling papers as a dirt-poor street kid wasn’t exactly a dream job, and Albert wished every day that he and his friends could escape New York to a better life, but Elmer was like a ray of sun in a rainstorm. He was excited just to count coins all day and suck up to old ladies.

“That’s great, shortstop,” Albert said, poking him in the shoulder. Elmer swatted him away and stuck out his tongue. “I’m headin’ over to the gates now. You wanna come with me?”  
  
“Yeah, duh,” Elmer said, hopping backwards down the sidewalk. “My brother gave me some money, an’ maybe if I have some left over we can go to that candy shop around the corner, do you know the one? They sell bags’a caramel for a dime, and it’s really good. Where do you usually sell? I know we sold over by the park a couple days ago when I went with you, but do you change every day or does everyone have spots…”  
  
Elmer didn’t shut up until they reached the selling gates and Jack Kelly, the second-in-command to their leader, picked him up around the waist and staggered straight into the crowd of chaos. Elmer’s smile was infectious, and for once, Albert didn’t even think to protest as Race grabbed him and dragged him into a new day.

Being a newsie didn’t always keep food on the table, but if it kept a kid’s smile out in the sun, then he couldn’t complain It wasn’t a grand life, but it was a fine one, and that was enough for him.

**Author's Note:**

> is this canon accurate? no prolly not but i don't care bc they're cute and this is my coping mechanism
> 
> pls don't forget to take of yourselves, drink some water and overthrow the government it's good for your mental health. alright have a good night, please comment and leave kudos :)


End file.
